This past Friday I was getting off work, I have a job now for those who didn’t know, Jarrod was supposed to pick me up so that we could go to the climbing gym. Snooze was out of town and Eli was getting a ride from Weston. Anyways I’m walking around the side checking my voice mail because we aren’t allowed to have our cell phones on us during work hours, when Weston calls me asking if I got his voice mail. He wanted to know if I wanted to go climbing in Tijeras at a place that sounded like Big Rock, but Weston mumbles so I’m not really sure of the name. Of course I said yes. It’s climbing outside. I say yes to that any time!
I get off at six o’clock on Fridays. It rained a few days before this, snowed in some parts of the state probably including Tijeras. It was going to be dark by the time we got there. By the time I hung up with Weston promising to pick me up in twenty minutes I had no idea why I was going climbing outside when it was so damn cold. Jarrod couldn’t come because he was going dancing later.
Twenty minutes turned out to be fifty, I’m convinced that Weston doesn’t actually know how to tell time, but Eli apologized for him profusely when he realized that I’d been waiting outside in the cold the whole time, and they did eventually come rescue my frozen self to take me somewhere even more cold.
In the car was Weston, Eli, and Weston’s girlfriend, a name that I am spacing on which is not good since I made out with the girl one drunken night. Not important to the story though. We drove the half hour to the climbing site and were basically flung to the ground the second we stepped out of the truck. It was so windy and cold. And terrible. I put on another layer of shirt and we wound our way down the trail to where two climbers were already waiting for us, Sam and someone else. They had a fire going because they are amazing people who deserve gold stars.
It was already getting dark at this point, and all I could think about was getting as close to the fire as I could not climbing. The climb basically looked like a cliff that came down with a nice little bit of it hanging out over the ground. Not sure how to describe it… like an over hang, and indent, a something that hangs out over the ground. There was a part that you could traverse, and other bits. The girl and I walked a way up the cliff away from the fire and climbed a bit in our street shoes. I wasn’t quite ready to take off the shoes in the freezing wind yet. We made it up then headed back to the fire.
It wasn’t long before the rest of the horde arrived, Peter and Dan and Shawn, and some other guy. Peter brought those fake logs and suddenly our fire was so much bigger they stood around drinking some beer, and vodka which incidentally makes you warmer than the fire did. And eventually pulled on shoes and started climbing. The piece they were trying I think was a V9. It started at the bottom and ended up upside down with several big moves made upside down in order to get you to the vertical part of the climb. It was fun to watch and I don’t think any of them actually finished it. Eli and I stuck to the traversing which consisted of going back and forth over an area mostly lit by the fire.
Two more girls arrived. And Weston’s girlfriend went to hang with them. Eli and I stuck with the wall. It was fun, challenging. Some guy said it counted as a 5 11 which is cool. I could do all the parts I just couldn’t really put them together, not properly. But I climbed by firelight, it wasn’t that cold, and I’d like to do it again when it is somewhat warmer.
2 comments:
I like this example of persevation through suffering. it's very dedicated. and motivating.
It was cold at first but climbing combined with vodka is very envigorating. or maybe things are always different in memory. i remember reacting like it was cold but i dont actually remember it being that cold. mostly i remember not being able to see the holds, having to feel them out and then remember where they were later on. i want to go back during the day in a couple of weeks.
jasmine
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